“Black on Earth/Thorns”

Before a generation of iconoclastic rappers flooded Soundcloud with their love of emo and fantasies of rock stardom, Cities Aviv was splicing post-punk and noise into his experimental rap songs. Since releasing his last album, 2014's Come to Life, the Memphis-based musician has shifted his attention to his noise-rock band TIRE, releasing a few one-off singles last year. In the last few months, he’s been particularly active with his original project, though, dropping everything from weirdo sound art pieces to chaotic freestyles.

Cities Aviv’s new two-part song, “Black on Earth/Thorns,” is his most fascinating and fully-formed product of these years, and it continues in his desire to to inject his most far-out musical interests into the rap template. The first half, “Black on Earth,” is the closest thing to ambient he’s has ever released: Full of gaseous echo and hot, wet noise, the production recalls Oval or Huerco S. When Cities Aviv’s voice does appear, it’s heavily processed, shadowy and indistinct in the soup of sounds. In the song’s second act, “Thorns,” he dissolves the noise slowly, gracefully pivoting into soulful rap-rock. Loops of crooning choruses and licks of bluesy guitar surround him as his voice emerges from the noise and he raps, enigmatically, about roses (and not much else). All together, the two halves form something that is confusing and entrancing all at once, and “Black on Earth/Thorns” is proof that Cities Aviv remains one of rap’s most interesting experimentalists.